Wednesday 24 August 2011

Accident Prone

I have really been enjoying my running over the last month. I started at the beginning of July with the intention of running everyday until the end of August and not surprisingly, I have not managed that, but, I have averaged over 5 runs per week for the last 6 weeks and more importantly, I have remained injury free and incorporated sessions that I have not been able to do, regularly, for the last 3 to 4 years. I enjoy running fast, interval sessions, fartlek, hill reps and to do these regularly and be able to run again the next day has been a massive boost to my confidence. My recent Bushy park run and my long run a few days ago both indicate that things are progressing in the right direction.

I am treating paddling at the moment as a weekly core session. I have been out in the Blenheim three times now. The first two times were very uncomfortable, with me working really hard to stay the right way up and often, only just doing so. last night Ad and I were out again. It was still very hard work but there was a small but perceptible improvement, which meant that there were fewer support strokes and slightly longer periods of smooth running and gliding of the boat. Once the sun had gone down and my horizon was more difficult to pick out, it became tense, but I am pleased that after a couple of hours that I can see some progress.

Cycling in the past three weeks has been predominantly based in the turbo dungeon doing  one long interval session and one short set a week. I have a couple of short time trials in the pipeline but I am still struggling to get something sorted over the winter to give me something to train for. I am hoping that their might be some winter cyclesportives to enter.

 Some three weeks ago I did a 2 hour ride complete with a one hour TT effort at threshold and just after I finished the effort at the foot of Boxhill, something went into my right eye. I rubbed it, it was sore, but other than a bit of irritation it was fine. On inspection at home, I had a mark on my eye that I took to be a cut, but it was not hurting so I forgot about it. Fast forward 2 weeks and my eye started to weep pretty badly, so I took myself off to my GP, who promptly took one look at it and stated that I still had something in my eye and I needed to go to casualty to have it removed.  :-(  On arrival at A and E the nurse started using terms like "..scraping my eyeball to clean it." Que grown man going weak at the knees and wanting to cry.
"Would you like your wife in here to hold your hand?"
"No, I'll be fine." While my bottom lip quivered.

After applying some anaesthetic eye drops and having a poke around with a cotton swab, with the offending particle still steadfastly refusing to budge, the nurse called over the doctor who then started unwrapping a needle. Oh, bloody hell! As ever, the thought of it was worse than the actuality and the insect body,  which is what it turned out to be, came off quite easily. I thought I might have got a sticker for my bravery. Wheezy junior always does.

Today I did a 3 hour hilly ride with Simon and felt strong throughout. As we entered Leatherhead at  the end of the ride my front wheel slipped from underneath me when it caught the grass verge on a cycle path. I landed heavily on my right hip and elbow and banged up my Ultegra shifter. I was hacked off, annoyed and feeling thoroughly sorry for myself as I pedalled gently into Leatherhead town centre. Literally two minutes after throwing myself on the floor I saw a patient from Headley Court being helped out of a car into a wheelchair, which rather put my very minor scrapes into perspective.

Monday 15 August 2011

London-Surrey Cycle Classic

A few blurry pics, taken at the roundabout where Reigate Road meets the A24.
The lead group.

The peleton catching fast.



A couple of back markers trying to get back in contact. It was staggering to see how conjested it all got with all the support vehicles. I've seen it on the tv when watching the TdF and Giro in the past, but up close and personal to it, it's quite a shock. Looking forward to next year even more now.


Saturday 13 August 2011

Wheezy 1 - Blenhiem 0

So last night was my first foray with a proper, tippy boat; a very beaten up old Blenhiem that was barely held together with duck tape. I didn't go in, but it was a damn close run thing. My splash support strokes got a lot of practice and I had to concentrate REALLY hard, doing no more than a few minutes before having to stop because I had caught my paddle or over-rotated. After 40 minutes of paddling very slowly up to Sunbury and back I was in a muck sweat, through fear rather than exhaustion. Adam was perfectly happy in the hobby and wanted to go on, but I knew that my luck and skill were about to run out, so we decided to do another 20 minutes in our old Mystere; the first time that we had been in a boat together since getting out the Discovery at Marlow during the DW. No wobbles, no dramas; nice to be back. :-)

In other news...

Kingston Phoenix Club 10 this afternoon and a new pb by 22 seconds, despite it not feeling like it at the time and saw ( I think) the Sky team bimbling along the A24, doing a recce for the Olympic warm up race tomorrow. I'm going to be cycling ver to Leatherhead, do a run and catch the race as it heads towards Boxhill and see if I can catch a picture of Cav etc. Good times.

Thursday 11 August 2011

A bit of paddling in a Stiletto

Adam and I have started the process of getting back into a boat, concentrating on K1 stuff. We have both been paddling a hobby, which after a few wobbles initially, has proved pretty stable. Yesterday, I was invited out in a Stiletto with a dad from the kids' school, Oli, who is a very experienced paddler. He has done the DW himself and when he found out that I had done it in the past, he kindly offered to take me out in a tippier boat. I wasn't looking forward to it; the name 'Stiletto' highlighting the relative instability of this boat (wobble factor 2/3) and I was very confident that I was going to take a swim or two.

It was a very strange experience. Firstly, at no time did I feel unstable; Oli, unfortunately did. I was in the back and Oli being a taller, bigger bloke folded himself up in the front as it was a club boat and I didn't want to break it. The boat was also A LOT lighter than anything that I have paddled in before, being easily lifted in and out the water by us with one hand. As we pushed off Oli started putting support strokes down straight away and sculling the top of the water and a couldn't understand why. I had the benefit of feeling very stable but with Oli in a new position, for him, in the boat and I presume not being able to see me and in the lowest volume part of the boat he was finding it hard to relax. We bimbled round the island for 5 minutes and the situation wasn't improving so I offered to go in the front. A quick boat change to the stiletto Oli had set up for him in the back, a quick seat adjustment for me in the front and we were off again. This time it was better. I was able to just keep stroking away while Oli gradually put down less and less support strokes, although the wind was getting up and did give us a few wobbles to contend with now and again. By the end, we were having a few runs of 5 to 6 minutes where we were really giving it some beans. *big grin*

All good fun, but I need to work on my own stability. The club has a beaten up old Blenheim which I will attempt to master before the water starts getting cold.

Monday 8 August 2011

Life in the old dog yet.

The last 3 weeks have seen my training numbers fall away somewhat. A fantastic family holiday in Spain, that saw me get out for 4 runs, between 30 and 40 minutes and in the pool every day. No real structured stuff at all, just trying to avoid being de-bagged by wheezy junior. The problem is that my relaxed attitude carried on into the following week as well. However, I kept the #summerrunning campaign going, although I only managed 2 bike sessions. A great 2 hour ride with a 1 hour tt effort in the middle and a bimbling and terribly unstructured turbo set. Grrr.....

Anyway, the culmination of last week was a 5km tt run at the Bushy park run. Since the Forestman I have put together my most consistent run training in a very long time and I wanted to see where I stood despite only a few speed and interval sessions. It was a particularly busy morning with over 700 starters, so I placed myself in the middle and waited for the off. These can be really tricky to pace right, especially if you're not quite sure what your fitness state is, with it being a very fine line between pacing it perfectly or blowing up horribly in the last kilometer, so I decided to start a bit more conservatively and work my way through the field. 

I had a great run. I haven't enjoyed myself like that in a long time, picking people off as I got my heart rate up and those in front started to tail off. I even managed to out-sprint another chap in the last 200 metres; I don't think I've done that since 1988! I was realistically expecting something in the region of 20.30-21.00, so to see 19.06 on my watch brought a very big smile to my face. Still a long way to go but very happy. Even more happy when I found out I had come 24th and second in my age group, something that I really was not expecting.  

While my running plan up to Christmas is nicely in place, I need to look at an event that will get me out on my bike, now that the TT season seems to be drying up. Autumn Cyclesportive? Audax? Not sure what, but I need something. Answers on a postcard please.